diet

I tried to do Whole 30 during the month of January. Key word there is tried. I know you can’t call it Whole 30 if you don’t follow all the rules, but I had a hard time. My biggest challenge was, that I eat dinner with people often. I usually eat with my parents on Sundays and then meet with friends and have dinner with them during the week. My first full weekend I ate a chicken Caesar salad that my friend made and I had to pick out cheese and croutons. I’m sure I didn’t get every last particle of noncompliant ingredient and there’s a certain point during dinner where you have to take your hand out of your salad. It’s just good manners. Then on Sunday, my dad made potatoes, which are fine, but he put butter (non clarified) on them. I ate them anyway. So that weekend, I should have started over.
Then from there things got harder. I have to say, if I stayed 100% compliant, I probably would have been less likely to add sugar (Splenda) to my coffee. I know, it’s the #1 thing, drinking black coffee is not hard. Halfway through my second week, I wasn’t enjoying life. I needed my sweet coffee in the morning. At this point, I have to say I wasn’t doing Whole 30 anymore. But I still wanted to try some recipes and I feel like I have some experiences to share.
I definitely think that you should tell your friends and family that you’re doing the program. It makes you have to own up to it and keeps you in check. So, when I didn’t want to go out for drinks or dinner I had a reason. (This also helped my spending freeze). Also, telling your friends about it made it a lot easier to explain to someone new, who, let’s say you went on a date with. On top of trying Whole 30, I signed up for Match to start up my dating life. I didn’t go on very many dates last month, but the ones I did mostly included Starbucks and passion tea. My last day was supposed to be yesterday (the 31st) but I indulged on a date and ate whatever I wanted and enjoyed a margarita on Saturday.
Overall, I have no idea how to be compliant. It doesn’t factor into my daily life. I did enjoy seeing my weight drop and learning new recipes. The carnitas and chili recipes in the Whole 30 book are definitely worth trying no matter what. Even though I wasn’t perfect, I did feel better and had more energy. Just the sense of being overall healthy made me go to the gym more too. I went a little crazy today with too much trail mix and homemade peanut butter cups, but tomorrow’s a new day.
I want to share a recipe that got me through most of Whole 30. I love, love, love overnight oats, so when I had to give them up I needed a replacement. I needed something that was tasty enough to get me out of bed in the morning, but, also, premade. I started making “egg muffins” to go! Here’s what you need to do (adapted from: Gal On A Mission)
First, start by browning some breakfast sausage (or bacon). Make sure to read labels if you want to be compliant, or grab what’s on sale, like me.

While that’s browning, start picking out veggies. I liked to use onions, bell pepper, spinach, and whatever was going bad. Add those to the pan when the sausage is done. You can use coconut oil or the grease left behind from the meat. Is that gross or lazy, or both?

I started cracking my eggs and added salt and pepper to them. I beat them with my pig whisk.

Once the veggies have done their thing in the pan add them to the bowl.

I used ten eggs and that filled ten muffin cups after filling. Make sure you use coconut oil all over that pan. My friend made these and ended up having to throw out her muffin pan. Don’t skip this step. Also, the silicone pans help to get the eggs out.

Cook them for 20-25 mins in a 350 degree oven. Make sure they don’t cook too long. Give them time to cool before you start to take them out. I made these on Sunday and froze 4 of them to eat later in the week. The other six were good in the fridge through Wednesday morning. Eating two of these a day with a piece of fruit kept me full until lunch.

Did I start my diet today? No. It was my friend’s birthday and there were sweets at work. You have to understand, she is a really good baker and she made chocolate cupcakes with nutella frosting and homemade marshmallow. I had two, they were soooo good! I didn’t even have room to eat lunch. After all the eating I did yesterday, I hardly even had room for breakfast! I started out my day with overnight oats and coffee. It’s my usual. I’ll make an effort to share how I make mine in a post coming up. But like I said, I barely had an appetite this morning.

So I guess I should explain what I mean when I say “I’m going to start my diet.” I’m actually not exactly sure. I know it wouldn’t include skipping lunch and eating two cupcakes. I also had a chocolate macaroon after dinner. I bought some for my friend’s birthday and I bought extra for myself. Big mistake. I got two and both were so super sweet. They made my tummy hurt. I regretted eating it instantly. I guess that’s a good place to start my “diet”: not to eat anything I could feel guilty about.

Real talk: I don’t know if I can consume anything and not feel guilty about it. Minus raw veggies and water. I’ve always felt very ashamed of my body and (almost) every time I eat I think “this is why you look like you do.” Does anyone else feel this why too? I really want to make an effort to eat things that make me feel good. I don’t like feeling negative about my body. I want to make it strong and beautiful.

I’m sure everyone who starts a new diet knows the struggle of having to clean out all the crap in their fridge first. Mine is still filled with Cinco de Mayo goodies. Mostly margaritas but I’ve also been making quesadilla’s on the regular for a solid week now. I don’t want to say “I’ll start next week” again because it’s starting to be never ending, er, never beginning.

I did do one positive thing today: I went to the rec center right after work. I walked on the treadmill for an hour and then the elliptical for a 1/2 hour. I like to go at a comfortable pace so I can read. I always hear that if you can read while you’re doing what you’re doing, then you’re not working hard enough. Oh well, at least I’m trying. I started reading the “Dorothy Must Die” series. It’s too soon to tell how I feel about it, but I love the Wizard of Oz so I can’t wait to dig in deeper. More trips to the gym = more time reading. Right? Right.